 | Rule a Wife, and have a Wife |  |
Prologue.
Pleasure attend ye, and about ye sitThe springs of mirth, fancy, delight and wit
To stir you up, do not your looks let fall,
Nor to remembrance our late errors call,
Because this day w'are Spaniards all again,
The story of our Play, and our Scene Spain:
The errors too, do not for this cause hate,
Now we present their wit and not their state.
Nor Ladies be not angry if you see,
A young fresh beauty, wanton and too free,
Seek to abuse her Husband, still 'tis Spain,
No such gross errors in your Kingdom raign,
W'are Vestals all, and though we blow the fire,
We seldom make it flame up to desire,
Take no example neither to begin,
For some by precedent delight to sin:
Nor blame the Poet if he slip aside
Sometimes lasciviously if not too wide.
But hold your Fanns close, and then smile at ease,
A cruel Scene did never Lady please.
Nor Gentlemen, pray be not you displeas'd,
Though we present some men fool'd, some diseas'd,
Some drunk, some mad: we mean not you, you're free,
We taxe no farther than our Comedie,
You are our friends, sit noble then and see.
| Rule a Wife, and have a Wife | |